When she uploaded a TikTok video on Oct. 8, like she does dozens of times per month, self-described “communist” influencer Madeline Pendleton had no idea she was about to become the biggest villain on the internet . In a video that has received more than 1 million views and hundreds of remarkably hateful response videos, Pendleton claimed that “the Democratic Party is paying people thousands and thousands of dollars to make videos talking about how awesome the Democratic Party is.”
For making this accusation, critics have attacked Pendleton and accused her not just of lying but also of the kind of racism that historically got black men lynched — yes, seriously, they actually said that. But Pendleton’s allegations are, with some nuance needed, basically true and correct.
The Harris campaign isn’t directly cutting checks to influencers. Yet Democratic-aligned organizations are paying TikTok influencers to create content parroting their election talking points, and millions of possible young voters are seeing these videos without knowing that they’re watching paid propaganda, not organic content.
How do we know this?
Well, for one, Pendleton, after facing pushback, posted receipts . The TikTokker shared screenshots that show her being offered thousands of dollars by a company called Vocal Media to promote Democratic talking points on Vice President Kamala Harris’s economic policies and anti-Republican talking points about the vastly overhyped “Project 2025.” And, according to Federal Election Commission filings, Vocal Media is funded by the Democrats both explicitly, via the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and indirectly, through Democratic-aligned organizations such as MoveOn.org.
Pendleton is just one of many TikTok influencers who’ve posted receipts showing these kinds of offers from Vocal Media or other Democratic front groups. (One Trump-supporting gay TikTok star posted the offer he received and hilariously told the New York Post, “Just because I do OnlyFans doesn’t mean I whore out my values. I would never sell out for Kamala Harris.”)
And we’ve known about the work of Vocal Media for some time. In 2022, VICE reported on the group, dubbing it a “PR firm” that’s “paying TikTok influencers to promote liberal causes and hype Democrats’ middling accomplishments.”
The VICE story noted that these videos “are generally not marked as sponsored content,” which clearly violates TikTok’s rules and, more importantly, possibly violates FEC rules on paid political advertising.
As someone who covers TikTok and follows many liberal and progressive influencers, I’ve personally seen video after video parroting the same talking points about Project 2025 or the Democrats’ economic “accomplishments” from creators who don’t normally discuss politics — and many did not disclose the seemingly obvious paid partnership behind the posts.
This is a serious problem.
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There’s nothing wrong with paid political advertising, but people need to know that what they’re looking at is a paid political ad. That’s why every campaign commercial you see on TV contains certain disclosures at the end. Paid TikTok influencers are getting away with flouting TikTok’s terms of service and, in some cases, federal election laws in a way that would never fly on any other platform.
On TikTok, millions of impressionable young people are being fed paid propaganda without knowing that that’s what they’re seeing. That’s an incredibly misleading phenomenon, ironically emerging out of the same side of the political spectrum that constantly complains about misinformation on social media.
Brad Polumbo is an independent journalist and the host of the Brad vs Everyone podcast.
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